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Of all the holes to fill.
In a city rife with cracked sidewalks and potholes, Big Apple officials have opted to finally jump into action on the one hole New Yorkers had come to know and love.
A popular Bedford-Stuyvesant street aquarium that was installed to much acclaim in a broken sidewalk flag near a leaking fire hydrant has been filled in with concrete, footage posted on Instagram shows.
“Welp, that didn’t last long,” read text over a video of the freshly renovated section of sidewalk on Hancock Street. “Some people are going to be upset when they wake up this morning,” the post added.
The final blow to the popular attraction came after the small fish pond was destroyed during an FDNY hydrant inspection earlier this week, leaving dozens of tiny goldfish dead.
Caution tape and orange cones had also been erected around the still-wet cement where the fish once swam.
It wasn’t immediately clear exactly when the work was carried out, or who ordered the move.
The fish pond was first made in August, when a group of locals decided to put about 30 goldfish into the roughly two inches of water that had collected in the hole due to the dripping hydrant.
The installation served as a community “beautification” project, residents said, until Tuesday, when the FDNY turned off the hydrant.
The FDNY said, at the time, that fire crews were performing routine maintenance on the Hanock Street hydrant.
The bi-annual check, however, resulted in dozens of nickel-sized goldfish flopping onto the pavement and dying, according to outraged locals.
The Post spotted a handful of the dead fish strewn all over the sidewalk through Wednesday.
Aquarian enthusiasts quickly rallied together — spending the next few days trying to revamp the prized puddle to avoid future debacles.
Local contractor David Jones, who lives around the block from the attraction, lined the base of the hydrant with a professional grade pond liner.
“We’re trying to waterproof it so we don’t have to worry about it constantly running,” Jones told The Post late Wednesday.
“The fire department was complaining about the water running. So now we’re gonna waterproof it.”
Prior to the cementing, locals, too, had been planning ahead on how to keep the fish — and makeshift tank — alive through winter.
“We’re gonna put heaters in it. Solar panel generated heaters,” Hajj-Malik Lovick, who helped construct the fish puddle, said.
He added that organizers were planning to erect a cover to prevent the snow and freezing rain from corrupting the pond’s temperature.
There was no immediate word from residents on the now-defunct pond.
Read the full article here
